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Thursday, 23 September 2010

Inside The Fox

There has been an interesting development coming out of the senate candidacy of Delaware “Tea Party” favourite Christine O’Donnell. As I noted earlier this week, she had cancelled two television appearances on Sunday, but was then persuaded to appear on the Tuesday show of professional loudmouth Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

But why appear on Fox only two days after cancelling on the same channel’s Fox News Sunday? Over at Media Matters For America (MMFA), they have the answer, reinforced by a source inside Fox. That source has confirmed that O’Donnell would have been given a more sympathetic and easier reception by Hannity. Chris Wallace, who hosts Fox News Sunday, is – a rarity for this broadcaster – thorough and objective.

So the electorate in Delaware see their GOP candidate make an appearance, but not where the questioning might get too difficult. This makes for good fundraising opportunities: MMFA’s Eric Burns has observed that GOP candidates “aren’t going on Fox for an interview, they’re going there for an infomercial to help raise money”.

Burns also stressed, in an interview on MSNBC’s Countdown, that their information on the easier nature of appearing with Hannity had come from an insider at Fox. That is the most significant part of his discussion with Keith Olbermann: if the MMFA source is at all well placed within Fox, there could be yet more interesting information on its way.

And, to add to the fun, there will no doubt be efforts made by Fox management to discover the identity of the MMFA informant.